Posted on 10/24/2001 6:11:49 AM PDT by Brookhaven
Mr. Nancetti, my third grade teacher, was wrong.
Mr. Nancetti claimed that script, or "cursive", handwriting was much easier and faster to write. He was wrong.
Writing in script is slower, messier, harder to read, and rare. What percent of the population writes in script? I doubt that it is very high. I can't remember the last note I received in "cursive" writing.
With typing now the norm rather than the exception, print handwriting will be forever dominant over script. Gone are the days when z's look like y's or when n's and m's are barely distinguishable.
I used to tease my mother that she did not know how to write in "cursive" -- she had never learnt it in school. But now I envy her for not spending time learning a soon-to-be defunct dialect of handwriting.
It could be that "graffiti," the handwriting style introduced by US Robotics' (now 3com) Pilot, will soon overtake script as the number 2 form of penmanship in the United States.
The biggest problem with teaching kids cursive writing is it takes the place of ensuring better penmanship. I can't tell you how many times I get notes from co-workers, colleagues, and friends that I can't read. Important messages are indecipherable and beautiful post-cards contain cryptic messages. If people would focus, just a little bit, on improving their handwriting rather than learning a new handwriting style, messages would be a little clearer.
So my suggestion is to scrap cursive writing altogether. Stop wasting third graders time when you could be teach more math, spelling, reading, government, or typing. Getting rid of cursive writing won't make the world a significantly better place or solve world hunger or create lasting peace, but it will ensure that written documents will be more legible. It will be a very tiny step toward a more productive society -- and we won't waste months of our children's life having to learn a handwriting style that is virtually useless.
Summation: stop teaching cursive writing in the classroom and stop encourage people to write neatly in print.
Additionally, I review many job applications. These particular ones do not indicate the preferred method of filling it out, and many are in cursive. An applicant that renders in the hand of a grammar-school student--whether cursive or print-- is under suspicion. It's like having stinky armpits at an interview.
I also rarely get letters in cursive, and when I do I often find them hard to read. Not because I can't read cursive, but because cursive is so different from one person to the next.
The only "D" I ever made in my life was in 5th grade Penmanship class at Sacred Heart School. When I brought home the report card my Daddy LAUGHED! Mom got real mad at him for making light of it, but he said just look at HIS handwriting! Actually mine looks a lot like his did. Mom has lovely handwriting because her generation worked a lot harder at it. And she stayed in school til the 11th grade, Dad dropped out in the 8th grade (thought both completed their GEDs when they were in their 50s which impressed us kids!)
I eventually developed a writing style that uses Block printed capital letters then go from there with cursive. That way I avoid the ridiculous Qs and other curlicue letters. But if I write in a hurry, it is still barely legible; my kids can't read it at all!
I work in a large municipal police department where dispatchers must be able to type and write quickly, and under intense pressure, when taking emergency calls-for-service. If one cannot write effectively, even that job is closed to the him. (/her....PC filter)
Are you saying that even if you were already inclined to write with your left hand and could already do so, they still made you try to write with your right hand?
(I would never have guessed this thread would generate so much response and here I am contributing to it...)
The author obviously never mastered "cursive" handwriting! Printing (I just tested it to make sure!) takes twice as long, and, in an effort to do it quickly, is much less legible.
Every day I use cursive handwriting, and life is too short for me to waste time "printing": task outlines, making notes from books/essays, post-it reminders to myself, writing checks, making shopping/errand lists, writing down "get to" instructions/directions, etc...
As far as I'm concerned, cursive handwriting is one of the most heavily-used basic skills I obtained in school, right up there with reading, spelling, basic math and typing.
Couldn't every argument about teaching cursive becuase of its speed be applied to shorthand? Why not teach shorthand instead of cursive?
When I went to school (in the 1940's), the words I heard defining the handwriting that we were taught was "The Palmer Method". We had to practice with a rolling motion to make the round letters. There was no controversy about what it was called. "I am learning to write!" was what we said. Printing was another matter. When I hand-write something, I usually end up half-writing and half-printing it so it can be easily read by me ;-) as well as others who may have a visiual problem.
What have I been missing all these years?!
P.S. Where can I go to see a comparison of the different kinds, say, Palmer and cursive?
Thanks!
g
LOL!!! The Army killed all traces of cursive that I had used in my handwriting. Whenever I write my name, it's still in all capital, block letters.
My mother is left-handed, and when she was in elementary school, the teachers would whack her left hand with a ruler if she ever tried to write with it.
I have a friend whose 5 year old daughter is in a montesorri school and they only teach cursive!! I have read comments here that people think cursive is more "personal" - baloney - if you can't read it, it's not "personal" - it's more of an insult - as in "they don't care enough to make this legible."
I wouldn't go so far as to say, "don't teach cursive", but in the end I only use cursive for a few personal reasons, and it just doesn't appear in my writing in the workplace or other parts of day-to-day life. I totally appreciate the original author's sentiment. Of course, I'm sure most people hardly ever use long division, too, but you don't see articles about eliminating that.
Boy, if this is the extent of your gripe with public education - you haven't been paying much attention.
BTW - I use cursive when I want a letter to be either more formal or more intimate. I use standard printing when I'm just sending a quick note or something strictly informational.
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